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This report summarises the findings of the National Employer Skills Survey (NESS) 2003 for the Skillset Sector Skills Council (SSC), which covers broadcast, film, video, interactive media and photo-imaging. The NESS was commissioned by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), in partnership with the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), to provide detailed information about the extent, causes and implications of England's recruitment problems and skill gaps. It also measures employers' training activities. Key findings include: the largest firms are proportionately more likely to have hard-to-fill vacancies, but in terms of actual numbers the largest proportion of hard-to-fill and skill shortage vacancies lie within the smallest firms; larger firms are also more likely to have skill gaps and also have the highest proportion of staff suffering from skill gaps; vacancies and skill gaps are predominantly for higher level occupations, administration and sales and customer service staff; the majority of staff working in the sector are managerial or professional; the main causes of hard-to-fill vacancies are low numbers of applicants with the required skills, attitude, motivation or personality, and work experience; the main causes of skill gaps are the lack of experience of the member of staff and it appears that skill gaps are linked to recruitment activity and, possibly, difficulties; the most common skills lacking in applicants are technical and practical skills, communication skills, customer handling skills and communication skills; the major areas of skill gaps are also in these areas; skills that are in shortage reflect the nature of the job, e.g. sales staff are more likely to have deficiencies in communication and customer handling skills whilst managers and senior officials lack management skills; employers are much more likely to report difficulties in obtaining professional information technology (IT) skills and some specific areas of need identified include web design, interactive media and production and editing skills.